Mobil Hotspot

Active member

Want internet access for your laptop or ipad while overlanding? Verizon has a product called a jetpack. Its about the size of a cigarette pack, run 8hrs on battery or you can plug it in using the USB adaptor/charger and can share up to 15 devices. It goes for around $200. The unlimited data plans start around $60 mo. We were looking for a system we could use at home and also travel and not having to find a hotspot. We dumped our home internet provider, which sucked, killing two birds with one stone. It uses the Verizon wireless network with great coverage everywhere.
HERES THE CATCH It was pitched as 4G LITE w/ unlimited data, but in the fine print the 4G is only for a specific amount of data after that they slow it down drastically, I burned through the 4G in about a week just surfing, with no video streaming. Its still faster than our former home provider offered and was still cheaper by $20/mo. They do offer upgraded plans but that is the bait and switch. Still a pretty cool product.

Active member

My Tow Vehicle has built in hotspot on TMobile, $15/mo for unlimited, its only 3G but its good enough for the kids tablets.. then we switched to T-Mobile on our phones, they can now both hotspot unlimited 3G data too.. so between me and my wife and the tow vehicle we've got 3 hotspots, all unlimited.. and its only costing +$15/mo extra.

Observer

Adventurer

We had a mobile hotspot for awhile and used it as home and on trips but when we got unlimited data plans on our phones we just hotspot from one of them and save $60 a month. Either way it's a life saver on trips especially when you have 3 kids.

Tail-End Charlie

Used a Verizon MiFi Jetpack for a few years. With external antenna. Worked very well. Wasn't cheap and they throttled my connection frequently.

Now have a Moto Z2 Force phone with Verizon Unlimited on a Friends and Family plan with 4 other people. $40/mo per person. (Plus whatever the payment happens to be on the phone. For the first few years I used a used Droid Turbo which cost me nothing, but I finally dropped it and broke the screen and it wasn't worth fixing. So now in addition to the $40/mo for the service, I'm also paying another $40/mo for the new phone.)

Works just as well for a mobile hotspot, except for long range reception, where the MiFi with external antenna worked better. But the phone is faster. I regularly see downloads at >2MB/sec and sometimes >3MB/sec. (Mega_B_ytes, not Mega_b_its.) On the plus side, no matter now much data we've used over the last few years, Verizon has never throttled any of us on the F&F plan, though the contract says they can if they want to.

Plus, the Z2 Force is supposedly already setup for some mystical future upgrade of Verizon's network to Gb LTE:

And the Z2 Force can take the magnetically attached "mods" on the back. I specifically wanted that. Not for some junk crap like a projector that only runs for 30 mins on its own battery and can't run off the phone's battery (they gave me the $300 projector mod as part of a promotion). Also not for some stupid 360 degree camera add-on. Or speakers. No, I wanted the mod capability to add an extra battery. They make phones these days so it's damned near impossible to replace the battery, and that sort of planned obsolescence just pisses me off. Especially on a phone that cost $550 (promotional special price).

Explorer

I have a $70 Walmart smart phone that has a hot spot and a $35 a month plan. It is unlimited but it does slow down at some point. You can get a faster plan. for $45 a month Kids use it for movies and games on their tablets while we travel.

Observer

TCP/IP via Radio, and LanSat are good back-ups when you're in the middle of no-where. My LanSat has a RJ45 Ethernet Port, cabled to the WAN port on my IBR900-600M Router. The Router is set-up as WiFi-as-WAN for use at the house, Cellular while travelling and LanSat as Fail-over. Disclaimer: I work for Cradlepoint, in Boise.